1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic information management server that manages a storing unit in which a document image generated by scanning a paper document and an electronic document created using application software that operates on a personal computer are stored, an electronic information management client, and a computer-readable recording medium in which an electronic information management method and an electronic information management program are recorded.
2. Description of the Related Art
The form of conventional information storage is usually implemented by filing a paper document. The information storage by the filing of this paper document is excellent in easy reading, easy handling, and convenience of portability. Particularly, it is excellent in intuitive comprehensibility. Accordingly, even today, the filing of the paper document is continuously being used in offices.
The creation method of such a paper document was by handwriting in the past. With the spread of a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as “PC”), however, a paper document is usually created as electronic information using application software on a PC.
Since electronic information has a characteristic that makes it easy to systematically manage by computers, an electronic information management system that uses this characteristic can be constructed. The storage form of this electronic information is implemented in such a form as a document management server. The document management server can be constructed both on a PC and as a file server shared and used by multiple users over a network.
Such an electronic information management system facilitates classifying or retrieval of documents. Further, a file server can also reduce a quantity of information efficiently by sharing the documents, and has a great advantage of using electronic information, such as enabling associating between the documents.
To the contrary, although the information storage by filing of a paper document is more intuitively comprehensible as described above than the information storage of an electronic document, it is very weak in retrieval or classifying, and the retrieval and classifying are the greatest shortcomings of the information storage by filing of paper documents.
As a way that solves such a defect, a method for reading a paper document by a scanner and storing it as an electronic document image in the same manner as an electronic document is implemented.
However, when such document images and electronic documents are continuously stored in an electronic information management system such as a document management server, its data capacity will increase explosively. Since limits are set on the storable capacity of the server, the server capacity needs to be expanded or the data capacity needs to be reduced by deleting a part of stored data.
The information stored in a document management server or the like contains various pieces of information, and the contents of the information are diversified as well. This information also includes a great deal of information that has a very important meaning only at a specific period and is necessary for only a specific person. For example, it includes the information that was needed only at the end of fiscal 2000 and the information valid for only a certain person. Most of this information becomes quite meaningless due to a lapse of a certain period or a change of circumstances.
It is undesirable from a data capacity viewpoint that the document image and electronic data that include meaningless (unnecessary/less important) information are stored.
If such meaningless information is stored, the meaningless information is also to be retrieved for information retrieval and the quality of a retrieval result will deteriorate. Specifically, if the information is retrieved under a certain condition, unnecessary information will also be displayed as a retrieval result in the state where it is mixed together with necessary information. The work of distinguishing and selecting truly necessary information from the unnecessary information will occur and an inconvenience will arise in the system utilization by the user.
Further, when a paper document that is kept ready to the user's hand becomes unnecessary, the paper document may be disposed of as garbage. At that time, if document data in which an electronic document that is an original copy of the paper document or the paper document is scanned is stored in a document management system, the document data needs also be deleted. However, in order to specify the data stored as a document image, it is necessary to understand the contents of the paper document that is at hand and set a condition under which the document is specified, thereby forcing the user to perform very troublesome work.
Moreover, since cellular phones and personal digital assistants that are increasing rapidly in recent years have a smaller storage capacity than that of a general PC when they store electronic information, such as electronic mail and image information, the electronic information needs to be rearranged. At this time, types of unnecessary information are extracted from the stored electronic information and the unnecessary information will be deleted. However, the user is at a loss for judgment as to whether it may be really deleted and the user may also delete necessary information by mistake. Due to such a problem, time is required for rearranging electronic information and the rearrangement itself becomes troublesome.